


you were a fistfight

by catradorq



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/F, bot fighter au, everything is almost the same but not, its lil bit of a slowburn start with judy and v, only somewhat angsty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:40:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29037270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catradorq/pseuds/catradorq
Summary: V and Jackie enter the BloodBath for the eddies and the glory.V comes out with nothing.or an underground bot fighting au
Relationships: Judy Alvarez/Female V
Kudos: 54





	you were a fistfight

**Author's Note:**

> This genuinely was supposed to be just a gay robot fighting au oneshot with judy and v. but damn did this blindside me. its in the works so feel free to leave suggestions for future things or any fixes
> 
> to note:  
> \- BD wreaths can be used to connect fighters to their bots if they've been modified for it  
> \- evelyn is a bit more well known in this au bc im gay for her and we need more of her

“Fuck!”

She dodges a wicked looking blade as it careens past her head, the katanas owner pulling back for another strike. V makes to duck again but is forced to step back instead, losing ground to keep her head. 

The match had been much of this. V striking hard and fast using her mantis blades only to be put on the defensive just as quickly. Her opponent was fast, built with a deceptively larger stature but what looked to be the latest enhanced light weight metal. Arasaka brand tech, she suspected. 

It’s faceplate was molded to resemble a demon, glinting teeth flashing in the arena lights with every swing. 

Her own bot was built for speed as well, but heavier with arms that followed a strike through until it was able to pierce the most protective of material. That was, if she was able to land a hit at all.

They were too fast and she needed something.

Struggling to block blow after blow with her own blades, V’s optic scanner frantically searched the surrounding arena for her partner but the smoking debris of broken bots littering the field made that nearly impossible.

It was a bloodbath and they were nearly the last standing. 

She manages to catch the bots katana between her arms, slashing downwards with a heavy motion and snapping its arm attachment. But she fails to dodge the fist that connects solidly with her face plate. She winces, from both the pain input, and just the knowledge that it would definitely dent. 

The bot’s body is thrown to the ground with the impact, sliding across metal with a terrible screeching and flashes of sparks. The interface flashes red and she has just a moment of blinking up at the arena ceiling before she watches a blurry shadow block it from above. 

Her opponent had managed to grab their dismembered blade arm, and was standing over her, ready to stab her through the face. V flinches as the blade soars towards her, briefly considering ripping off her BD wreath before the impact.

But never does it come as a single shot rings through her audio receptors. 

One side of the bots demon face caves in with a sickening impact and it flails for a moment, it’s driver seemingly affected by the pain spike, before righting itself. From her view, V could see its left optics blown apart but still it stumbles forward blade ready. It’s head lifts to find the culprit that had fired but V wasn’t going to waste it.

She takes her chance, kicking its knee inwards and pushing herself upwards as it falls. Her blade passes through its core and glides easily through the inner workings of the bot, pushed deeper by gravity as it falls upon her. 

By the end V is still, on one knee, arm punctured through the metal figure, and her receptors picking up the frantic whirring within it before it slowly shuts down. 

V takes a moment before she shoves the masked bot aside and onto the arena floor, getting to her feet. Her interface scrolls a quick damage check across her eyes before it blips away and she’s left blinking down at her defeated opponent. 

“V!” 

She turns quickly and is met by a wall of metal slamming into her and picking her body up and into the air. 

“Shit chica! We fucking did it!!”

V breathes a disbelieving laugh. 

“Oh shit.” Her voice is full of static and sounds jagged through the local coms but Jackie laughs warmly all the same as his juggernaut of a bot spins hers. The creaking of metal on metal would surely scratch up something but they couldn’t care less. V’s own laughs come easier as the reality sinks in. 

Their exuberant noises of joy taper off as they calm down, then Jackie’s bot seems to go still.

“I- I can’t... hah.. We’re in! We’re really- Jackie?” 

The bots arms still around her don’t budge as V pulls at them, only seeming to get tighter with the sound of crushing metal. 

“Jackie? Shit! What’s wro-“

The voice that leaves the bots coms sound strained but V hears it clearly.

“V get... out..! Disconnect....NOW!” 

Then she’s falling, and time seems to slow. In the split second before she hits the ground she watches the katana blade carve its way up through Jackie’s chest plate. Then she’s on the floor and the familiar bot is falling to its knees. 

“No!” 

She lets out a shout of anger that crackles through the coms like thunder. Her bot is already responding to her instincts and shifting to get back up, but a surge of pain lances through her synapses and she feels her bot falling instead. 

V screams in her own body, the pain input peaking and nearly overwhelming her. She feels herself thrown out of the bots interface and she rips the BD wreath from her eyes. 

“Jackie!?”

Lights flash before her in that familiar unpleasant way as she shifts back to her own senses and she tries to force herself back to reality. 

For another moment, something akin to a hot knife carves through her brain, and she’s falling out of her driver seat with a pained gasp. The feeling burns through her mind and spreads bolts of lightning through her nerves and V feels her jaw clench so hard she fears she’d bitten her tongue off.

It takes everything to push through whatever was causing it, her pain drunk mind somehow still latches on to the one thought of reaching her best friend. 

With effort V stands from the floor and hurries over to where Jackie’s still form rests in his driver chair across the room. He isn’t moving and cold dread washes it’s way up her spine. Something is definitely wrong.

“Jackie!”

V is about to pull the BD set up from his head when she sees that his bot’s unique bridge shard had already been taken out of the wreath’s port. The plugs for the vitals monitor had been pulled too. 

“What the fuck-“ 

Then her body is hitting the ground and the world goes dark. 

-

Sleep came easiest to her in the days following the disaster of a fight, but mostly because she spends it drunk on sedatives Vik had insisted she take. Said it was for her own good, that her body and mind were still healing from whatever had happened in that room during the fight. 

V sure as hell didn’t know. Just that, when she had finally slipped into consciousness she’d been looking up at the neon lit buildings of Night City rising up around her. Chucked away in some alley, by her guess.

She’d manage to glimpse Jackie’s prone form propped up painfully on a heap of garbage next to her before she’d blacked out again. 

Next time, she woke up in Vik’s clinic. 

V had been lucky that the old ripper doc had been so supportive of her and Jackie’s quest for glory and fame, that he had been at the underground match despite his disdain for the sport of bot fighting. Misty mentioned the man had ripped the shady referee a new one in his effort to find them.

Turns out they’d been left for dead after their loss. Not uncommon when you were swinging your lot in the underground arenas rather than the commercial ones, but fuck, did it suck ass. 

“V?”

The voice sounds muffled to her ears but V manages to acknowledge it with a small grunt. She would have lifted her head, but the cool metal underneath felt too good to leave. 

“V. You’re gonna be late.”

Late? For what? Nothing seems more pressing than the heavenly feeling of the table to her face, cooling heated skin. Her arms fold tighter around her head as if it would block out any intrusions.

“Kid, if I have to call Misty down to get you out of here, you’re never hearing the end of it.”

“Vik...please. I’m trying to sleep.” V groans. She manages to peek through a crease between her arms at the built man looming over her. 

“If you’d have done that about six hours ago when I told you, you wouldn’t be lookin like a dead gonk walking.” Vik crosses his arms shaking his head and V watches him walk over to his workspace. For a brief moment, she believes he’ll finally leave her be.

“Lizzie’s is opening soon. Don’t think Mateo would take too kindly to his newest hire being late.”

Shit.

After weeks of working low grade merc gigs, V had finally decided to take up something a bit more stable, per Vik’s suggestion. Less bullet wounds, he said. She wasn’t much of a people person but she left that part of the bar tending to Mateo when she could.

“How’s the…yknow?” Vik gestured to his head with his tool implanted hand, the metal clicking together.

“You mean my fucked up head? Just peachy.”

V scoffed, finally unfolding herself from the safety of her position sitting at the ripper doc’s desk. She stretched, ignoring the twinge of pain from her lower back.

Vik brushed off her tone, grabbing a scalpel from a tray and inspecting it. She recognizes his clinical shift as he goes from close friend to her annoyingly thorough ripper doc.

“How’s the glitching? Any better?” 

V grunts, half heartedly searching for where she had kicked off her boots when she’d barreled into the place just to crash at the desk. 

She didn’t want to think too hard about the intermittent flashes of ‘User Malfunction’ she received every few hours. V especially didn’t like thinking about what usually followed those warnings. Like she could feel it coming again every time she recalls the prickling of static that usually preceded an episode.

“Light and audio sensitivity? Nausea? Dizziness-“

V growls, fingers tightening on her newly found shoe as she shuts her eyes.

“Fuck, Vik! I got nothing to say!” She snaps. Immediately she regrets her outburst and she looks away.

“Sorry...I just-“ she sighs. “No… I mean, nothings changed. Still… still the same.”

V doesn’t move when she hears Viktor approaching, even when she feels his hand on her shoulder.

“I’m worried bout you, V.”

Her heart clenches with his words and she finds it infuriatingly difficult not to let her eyes grow a bit foggy.

“I know, Vik. I’m really thankful I got you in my corner. But it’s been…”

“Hard?”

“Worse.”

V feels his large arms come up to fully embrace her and she feels the boot in her hand fall with a heavy thump, forgotten. For a second, she fights her instinct of slipping away from the contact, but soundly crushes the feeling. Her arms come to wrap around his barrel chest and her head rests upon his shoulder. 

It’d been a long time since she let herself just feel something as simply comforting as this and her mind wanders to Jackie. It never truly leaves him, though.

“You were right, Vik.” V pulls away after a moment, sniffling. She’d later swear she hadn’t teared up just a little. 

“Bout what, kid?” 

“We never should have entered that fight. If we had just listened to you, maybe Jackie…” 

“Hey.” Viktor gently grabs her by the shoulders and looks at her with the softest look V had seen on the older man.

“I had my reservations bout the whole thing because I’ve been in the same boat before. But dammit, kid. You and the Jackster were good. You won. We both know you did.” 

Dull anger shifts in V’s stomach at the thoughts of that night. Something had gone wrong and she had been powerless to stop it. 

“No one could’ve known someone would have rigged the game. But you were in it and you played it fair because you both loved it. And God knows you wouldn’t have backed down even if you had known the odds. Would’ve just beat 'em anyways.”

V laughs with a strained sounding noise. 

She had loved it. She had first met Jackie from across the ring, locking eyes, and somehow just knowing she had found someone who was as in love with the game as she was. They hadn’t even met in person, just bantered through the com link between bouts of beating the shit out of each other from their bots. Then, he cornered her after the match and invited her over for food at his mom’s place and V knew she’d found her partner.

At first it had just been for their bot fights, she’d needed a duo fighter and so did he. But Jackie had a way about him that made it hard not to get sucked into the circle he called family. 

“Jack wouldn’t want you to give up on what you love, y’know.”

“I’m not.”

It wasn’t a lie, V still loved to fight. But that didn’t stop the way her stomach would roil everytime she looked at another bot. She remembers the last moment she’d had the BD wreath and Sync gear on, the initial searing pain in her head that had been by far the worst thing she’d ever felt. Worse, than the after effects it had left in her.

Then she remembers Jackie. He had warned her before she felt it. Had he felt it too? Did he save her from the worst of it? She shudders, willing her thoughts away. 

“I just don’t think I can…not without him.”

Vik watches her for a moment, before he straightens up and nods softly. He seems to want to say something else but stops himself.

V sighs, already emotionally worn out before her day had even begun.

“I should get going, Vik.” Reluctantly, she steps back and finishes getting ready, lastly pulling on her jacket that she had stolen from Jackie early on in their friendship.

“You visit him yet?” 

She turns to see Vik’s back to her.

“Not yet.”

“You should. Misty says it might be some help. For both of you.”

V is at the clinics folding gate when she stops, throwing back a quiet, “Thanks, Vik.” Then she’s out in Night City’s evening air.

-

Lizzie’s had been a nice hangout for her and Jackie, aside from the Coyote, before things went south. It definitely felt much different walking back in without her choom.

She nodded to Rita as she passed through the main entrance, the woman waving her in with a flick of her spiked bat. 

“Cutting it a bit close, huh?” She teases and V offers a smile in return. 

“I’m sure everyone here’s got better to do than miss lil old me. Mateo mention anything?” V asks.

“Nah, but better hurry before Suzie comes out and sees you gawking around out here and not behind the bar.” 

“Got it. Thanks.”

“No problem, babe.”

V had been a regular at Lizzie’s long before she’d started workin it, but never really interacted with many of the Mox girls besides Rita. They kept a bead on her, though if a few of their looks were any indication, some maybe for things beyond her previous merc status. 

Mateo hadn’t mentioned her missing partner, but it was hard to miss the way she avoids looking to the corner booth as she dishes out drinks. He doesn’t pry which she's endlessly grateful for, though unsurprised. Secrecy was his biz, after all.

By the time Evelyn Parker walks in, it's close to 2 AM.

V spots her immediately, a sight like her hard to miss even in the mass of people making up the bars dance floor. She’s grace personified, not a single drunk body daring to stand in her path as she walks. 

Not one to be intimidated easily, even by ten Maelstrom gunners facing her down, V would readily say the woman was akin to a force of nature. 

Back when it was her and Jackie shooting the shit as regs, they’d seen Parker come through only on rare occasions. More often than not, disappearing straight through the doors reserved for the working girls, without so much as a glance at the rest of the place.

It's the first time V has seen her since she’d begun slinging drinks here. And sure as hell was the first time she’d seen her linger at the bar for more than a quick shot, readily served to her.

V’s serving a wasted looking man on the other side of the bar when she sees Evelyn in her peripheral. Mateo doesn’t even let the gonk in front of him finish his order before he’s at her service, leaning in to hear her over the loud music. 

She tries not to watch them, but it’s hard not to when in front of her the man doesn’t even seem able to keep his eyes open. She signals a Mox at a nearby booth to keep an eye on him before settling into wiping the bar down. 

It seems to be a lengthy back and forth before Mateo finally straightens and gives Evelyn a doubtful look. In turn, her glare is pointed, more of a demand, and that’s all it takes for whatever they were debating over to be decided.

V feels as if a cold bucket of water is poured over her head when they both turn to look at her.

Oh fuck.

Before she can even blink Mateo is at her side.

“V. Take your break, I got it from here.”

V opens and closes her mouth in surprise, still off balanced by the sharp woman’s gaze on her.

“But- uh I just took it.” 

“I’m telling you to take another. Preferably, in the lounge.” The man doesn’t break his serious demeanor but his tone is anything but subtle.

“Right. Yeah.. ok.” 

V hurries past him, already noticing Evelyn’s disappearance from the bar. She catches sight of a long coat trailing through the back door and quickly makes her way after it.

From everything V has learned in her time as a merc, she knew little was more deadly than keeping someone like Evelyn Parker waiting.

-

A Mox points her the direction of the right room once she’s passed the swinging doors and V takes a moment to overcome her initial shock over the situation.

Shit.

She was acting like some green eared fighter, so excited by the chance of seeing eddies that they get their bot flatlined before even five seconds in the ring. V needed to be more cautious here.

Evelyn Parker wasn’t a fixer, though her name had been thrown out enough times by many of them, for V to understand just how many connections the woman has. If she needs another gig done, it seems highly suspicious that she’d seek out someone like V, only a part time merc who had banked her luck more in underground fight circles than in the hands of fixers, while she was active.

There's a feeling of dread pricking at V’s chest as she lets the automatic door slide open, then closed behind her as she steps into the space.

Evelyn’s already draped across the far seat, smoke drifting from her lips and eyes all about ready to tear into V.

“What do you want?”

A single brow raises, followed by a soft chuckle. The noise makes V want to make for the door but she steels herself.

“Oh? Straight to the point. Good.” Evelyn uncrosses her legs and leans forward. “I was worried you’d be the chatty type.”

V watches her drift a gold tipped finger to her side, an obvious offer, but she remains where she is, standing by the door. Evelyn shrugs in a ‘suit yourself’ sort of way before she takes another long drag. “Alright, no use drawing this out for the both of us then.”

“I want you to fight for me.”

V’s heart skips a beat. Stops. Then starts, beating much faster.

Maybe she heard that wrong.

“What?”

“Mmm. Let me rephrase that.” Despite seeming so at ease at her place on the lounge's seat, Evelyn is up and out of it so fast it makes V instinctually take a step backwards. And then another, as the woman comes straight for her, taller than her with her heels and so very intimidating with something fierce in her eyes. V lifts an arm as if going to block an oncoming blow but grows deathly still when instead, gold plated fingertips wind their way around her wrist.

“V. I need you to fight for me.”

Had V not been occupied by the very insistent presence of the woman before her, she might have had the thought capacity to be very frustrated with the amount of times she's caught her off guard. But for now, she can’t think of much beyond the way her chest feels tight and her head has begun to burn.

Though, now that she’s thinking about it, that definitely wasn’t because of Evelyn.

Shit.

Evelyn’s grip on her wrist tightens and her eyes grow wide with undisguised surprise. V would have laughed if there weren't red warnings with the words ‘USER MALFUNCTION’ flashing before her eyes.

“V?! V, your bleeding!”

Her hand goes to confirm what she already knows to be true, coming away with spots of crimson and V’s breath begins to come stilted. Before she knows it she's curling into herself and nearly falls to the lounge floor with Evelyn crouching down to support her weight, hand still grasping her other wrist.

“V! Shit! Mateo! Someone get Judy!”

By the time V’s head hits the ground, the words are drowned out and she feels the darkness creep into her vision.

-

“- I mean, look at her! She can’t be your only option.”

“-weren’t there, Judy. She can do this… She’ll have to.”

The voices seem all too loud for V to continue her blissful rest and she shifts, trying to get in a better position that would help her block out the irritating disturbances.

But V had tried very hard to fall asleep in BD chairs enough times in her life that she knew just how impossible that task was. She could recognize them anywhere.

“Oh fuck...my head.”

V hears footsteps moving about the room around her but can’t bring herself to open her eyes just yet. The black void behind her eyelids and the sound of soft whirring filling the room already seemed too much for her raw senses.

“Oh good. You're alive. For a second there, Evie was worried she might’ve killed you.”  
The sardonic voice appears somewhere near V’s right side, and though barely raised, the sound makes her groan. 

“Who- ugh… nevermind. I just.... just need you to… shh.”

“Did you just shush me?” The voice sounds mildly affronted, and suspiciously louder than before. V winces.

“Judy.”

There’s a moment of beautiful silence, that V gratefully sinks into before she hears a resigned sigh.

“Alright, alright. Fine.” 

There’s more movement, now to her left and V almost takes the risk of peeking her eyes open. Though, the piercing of blue soft light makes her think again.

“V. It’s Evelyn Parker. How do you feel?” Her voice is thankfully much quieter, and V has never been more relieved. But she also remembers her last moments with the other woman before she had nearly flatlined herself.

“Shit… Is this how… hn... how you're gonna make me… agree to work with you? Wait til I’m at my most… vulnerable?”

She hears an amused huff of laughter to her right.

“I’m not making you do anything, V.” 

Evelyn sighs close enough V can smell the faint scent of cigarette smoke wafting off her. What the hell was this? They just watched her sleep the whole time?

“You’ll always have a choice. Though,” More shifting, V hears cloth rustling, almost imagines it brushing her prone hand. “...yours do seem to be a bit more limited than most. Considering the condition you're in.”

Of course.

“Fine. Tell me the truth then, doc. What’re my options here?” 

There’s a bit more muffled laughter at her right side and V is more curious than ever, wondering just who else was in the room. She thinks back to the voices.

Hm. Someone with the name Judy, she’d guess.  
“Your ability to find any humor in this situation is almost charming, merc. But I suppose a life lived in fear and suffering would be much duller. And you’ve already done plenty of suffering as of late.” 

There's more sounds of footsteps, this time moving away from where V lays in the BD chair, and distinctly heeled. But it's the words that set off an uncomfortable feeling in her chest, and V forces herself to open her eyes fully despite their sensitivity.

She winces as dim blue light floods her vision, washing over the image of a basement looking room. Monitors sit directly across from her at an unoccupied desk and she can still hear the humming of computer servers all around her. Evelyn stands in front of the desk, back to her, her presence so strong that V almost forgets the second voice to her right.

Then she forgets to forget because there’s a very attractive woman leaning upon the unused arm rest of the BD chair, eyes watching V’s face with an odd mixture of amusement and mistrust. It doesn’t quite make sense to her but her mind can only process one thing at a time.

Like this woman’s eyes. Or her tattoos. Or her li-

V looks away hurriedly, just as Evelyn is turning back to face her.

“Your friend. Jackie Welles, was it?”

Fuck.

“He’s in a coma, surrounded by his friends and family. His mother, owns the Coyote Cojo bar in the Heywood District, and his input owns a little shop right above Vicktor Vector’s clinic-

“So what? This a fucking threat, then?” V bristles, not bothering to hide the anger in her voice. She didn’t know where the fuck this woman got her info but she was not about to play this game with her.

The other woman next to her had tensed with Evelyn’s words, confusion dotting her features.

“Evie, what-”

“It's not a threat, V. That's not how I do things.” The statement was directed at her, but V sensed that there was a bit more behind it, intended for this Judy woman. “I’m telling you that I know what happened. At your last fight.”

V is silent at this, palms beginning to grow sweaty as she clenches and unclenches her jaw.

“The match was rigged. And the duo who was meant to take the million eddie prize? Spiked with a prototype daemon not meant to flatline. But close enough to keep them from completely winning without suspicion.”

V knew it was the truth. She felt it as keenly in her bones as she did the burning of her synapses everytime one of those damned ‘user malfunctions’ decided to rear its ugly head. 

It was a time before V could find her voice.

“But why? Compared to the money most of these fighters were dishing out on tech, million eddies looks like chump change… ‘Sides the underground kingpins hardly bat an eye to the occasional accidental offing.” V shakes her head, believing it but unable to comprehend the reasoning.

“You and the big lug really had no idea what you were stepping into, did you?” Evelyn looks almost disbelieving. “Can’t believe two of the most straight edged, fair of the fairest bot fighters actually won the dirtiest tournament known to the underground. Well, almost won.”

V scowls. She had known, of course. Jackie talked about the event for months before he had finally convinced V (not that it was that difficult) to enter it. The BloodBath. Wasn’t terribly unique as far as tourney names went, but it spelt out the jist of it for those dumb enough to think it was just any old arena brawl. 

She had seen everything from fighters disabling their pain receptors to others installing EMP distributors in places where the comp scanners wouldn’t pick up anything wrong with the bot. V wasn’t new to the tricks of the game but they’d managed to out beat ‘em all. 

Her and Jackie.

“So? What made it worth the hassle?”

Judy’s voice pulls V away from more spiralling thoughts of her partner.

Evelyn hums, her long fingers seeming to seek something out from within her coat pocket before looking over at Judy and stopping herself. V had noticed the lack of cigs in her hand in the time since she’d woken.

“Let’s just say the prize wasn’t just the money or the supremacy of bragging rights among gangs this year. And definitely not something known to anyone outside of certain circles.”

Almost as if just for the suspense of the moment, she pauses, both women opposite her hanging to her every word.

“The chance at taking Arasaka SoulTech.”

V blinked and turned to Judy who lets out a long, low whistle.

“Fuck. No wonder.”

“SoulTech?” V, like everyone in Night City had heard of Arasaka Corp. And like almost everyone, had been fucked by them probably more than once in their lifetime. She heard the rumors they were developing technology that dealt with the ideas of infinite life. But even she had found it hard to believe.

“So the competition? Wasn’t anything more than some sick corpo game?” God, she was tired of this.

“Not exactly. It's a little known fact that Arasaka’s little prince has gone a bit rogue. Some would say mad really. But either way, Yorinobu Arasaka has managed to swipe something quite dear to the Emperor and now he’s looking to see how far he can push dear old dad.”

“He’s making a name for himself within the viper’s nest of the underground out of his father’s shadow and the BloodBath was only the first step. What better way than Night City’s more public of violent passions? Bot fighting. Always been one to draw out his little games, the snake. Riling up the nest and holding back the reward was a risky power move, but it ensured him the attention of the most powerful people in the city. Including that of his father’s and sisters’.”

Wait. V remembers the last opponent she had faced in the arena, the one with the demon-like mask molded onto it. The Arasaka brand tech hadn’t stood out to her in the moment as most bots were cobbled together from an assortment of corpo technology, stolen or otherwise. But hearing this now made her feel like a complete gonk.

“You mean to tell me the duo me and Jackie fought at the end… they were ‘Saka goons? Saburo trying to win back his tech?”

Evelyn scoffs and it's almost like she couldn’t believe it herself.

“Not just any. Sandaya Oda and Goro Takemura, personal bodyguards to Heiress and Emperor respectively. You and your choom managed to out do some of the most skilled fighters in their ranks without even knowing it.”

“Barely.” V turns away, remembering the last moment where she’d almost been impaled and Jackie had saved her ass with a single shot.

Evelyn tilts her head thoughtfully and nods. 

“Well yes, I suppose Yorinobu would have a hand in giving his father’s lackeys some major disadvantages the same way he did you. Had to be pretty severe as well. Wouldn’t let the prize go so easily, now would he.”

V tenses at the realization that she had fought so hard just to make it as long as she had, and yet, that still wasn’t the full capacity of her opponents capabilities. It was like some fucking joke telling her she hadn’t actually achieved anything at all.

“And now you need someone to fight in another fucking rigged tourney, to what? Win the tech for you?” 

“I needed an in, and your it, V.”

V’s face twists with anger and confusion. “But I lost. And Jackie…” The games corpos played were merciless. The city was sick.

“My theory is that you were never part of the plan. Your friends’ coma wasn’t planned, merely a side effect. Had Yorinobu wanted to kill you, he’d just have spiked your BD with any old deadly virus, but he left you alive and well. Mostly. The BloodBath not only sparked interest but measured potential and no one expected two ratty gonks from Heywood to make it to the end. Least of all him. The sabotage was sloppy, unplanned, most likely someone fucking up the dosage of sleep daemon you recieved, hence your respective conditions. But now, he sees you. Only a matter of time before you got your invite, with or without my intervention.”

“So I accept? What do I get out of this? My friend still in a coma and me still bleedin’ out my eyes and ears?!”

“All the money to hire the right people to help him, yourself, and then some.”

V’s eyes slam shut. Shit. Would it help? God, yes. Was it worth it?

She imagines Jackie. Looking more than just a pale ghost of himself in his old bedroom, hooked up to some black market tech the Valentinos had managed to scrounge up to keep him alive.

V wanted it more than anything, ever.

“So what will it be, V? I can provide everything you need from here, bots, equipment, even got a partner in mind for you. Just get me in and win the tech, take the money and all the glory you’ve ever wanted.”

But could she even fight without Jackie?

It was too much, V couldn’t even think about what all this meant, let alone linger on that thought too long.

“I- fuck… I need some time to think.” And maybe a drink. Or three.

“V, we don’t have all the time in the world, consider-” 

“Evelyn.”

Both women look over to see Judy, slumped back in her chair, quiet for the majority of the exchange. Now though, her arms are crossed and she was looking at Evelyn with what V could only describe as fury in her eyes.

“You're gonna give her the time she wants because the two of us need to talk.”

The V who’d been intimidated by Evelyn the first time she had met her would never have believed in the sight of the Evelyn now standing under Judy’s stare. Presence almost smothered under the smaller woman’s quiet anger, she looks called out and utterly surprised about it. A deer in headlights, which V suspects is a rare feeling for her.

She senses that maybe it's time for her to leave as the two women stare each other down. So as quickly as she can, V waves herself off, receiving a terse nod from Evelyn and a look from Judy that she can’t quite decipher. Pity, maybe.

She doesn’t look back as she leaves.


End file.
